Insights
Benefits of Headless CMS: Future-proof Your Tech Stack
Find out how a headless Content Management System helps ensure your stack is ready for the future.
- Article
- 4 MIN READ
- Jul 20, 2021
Head of Platform Strategy
Summary
Technology teams are continuously faced with the challenge of creating digital experiences that meet customers where they are. In today’s digital marketplace, this means having the ability to pivot your tech stack to accommodate where and how customers search, changing consumer preferences, and evolving technologies.
For teams already using a headless CMS, you’ve likely already experienced the benefits: a tech stack that is adaptable to change, is easy to update, and delivers fast performance.
Let’s take a look at the sophistication and benefits that a headless CMS offers to determine if it’s a fit for your business.
Pandemic-fuelled eCommerce spike
With more people at home since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world saw eCommerce rates climb dramatically. For example, in 2021, eCommerce grew 23% year over year in Chile, 14.2% in the United States, and 15% worldwide.
In emerging nations like Colombia, populations are also seeing higher rates of internet connectivity, further driving eCommerce growth. In 2021, for example, Colombia saw 1.3 million more people using the internet than in 2020. This increase in internet activity is driving a healthy increase in forecasted online sales worldwide.
Businesses who want to stay at the forefront of these shifts must assess their technology infrastructure to ensure systems are able to respond to this rising demand. Embracing a headless CMS along with a composable approach to development can help you get ahead of these changes, and quickly drive value for your customers.
Customize your digital experiences with a headless CMS
In the same way that the look and feel are important for the success of a physical store, the front-end of an eCommerce site plays a key role in user experience. Today, site visitors expect a simple, sleek, and lightweight interface, so they can quickly identify what they’re looking for and decide if your brand is the best fit for them.
Now, couple this reality with the fact that the average mid-to-large sized company has several communication channels, information pages, and products to manage. Teams need consistency in the way content across these elements is created and ultimately delivered. Traditional monolithic CMS systems lack the agility necessary to provide this consistency, restricting build capabilities to the point where solutions often feel bulky and cookie-cutter.
In contrast, using a headless CMS decouples your front-end management and experience from the rest of the system. This allows for greater content customization and efficiency in deploying your content across all channels and devices.
Strengthen your eCommerce platform with microservices
By developing your front-end on a headless CMS (using the underlying REST API), you are free to use different programming languages along with microservices, which enhances the quality of the digital experiences you provide. Let’s drill down into how this approach is beneficial:
Each microservice enables a particular service feature for your end user, and helps your site adjust and scale when user activity fluctuates. This activity could look like purchase processing, providing alternate payment methods, or active chatbots.
Using an API-first approach allows you to develop highly functional and flexible platforms. Your platform can easily test and launch new elements, helping you remain agile in a dynamic and highly competitive digital environment.
Use Commerce Layer to drive your eCommerce
Commerce Layer is the name of a headless software platform that you can leverage to develop eCommerce experiences. These experiences relate to the digital shopping journey, unifying data across your mobile app, chatbot, and core site.
The Commerce Layer software operates as CMS-agnostic, empowering teams to select the content manager, design models, and elements they would like to use. Here are a couple of benefits of using Commerce Layer:
It provides the necessary infrastructure to integrate all the features required in a global eCommerce site — shopping cart status, inventory management, payment methods, and applying the right purchase tax to transactions.
It provides everything that is required to deploy a complete shopping experience. It uses simple API calls to enable lighter, fast-loading eCommerce sites.
Commerce Layer is focused on delivering the best microservices that underpin the entire eCommerce journey. The software offers all the necessary tools to help businesses mature and scale over time. Commerce Layer allows for fast integrations, without impacting your existing features that support transactions.
Future-proof your strategy with decoupled tech
By using a headless CMS, you are future-proofing your tech stack. This approach provides the maximum flexibility for your content management, integrations, and boosts the overall digital experience delivered to your customers, thanks to the power of microservices.
At Apply Digital, we build and deploy solutions with the best technology partners, developing world-class eCommerce platforms for your business. If you would like to speak to someone about how we can help, please reach out to our team.
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